Music You Know & Brahms 1
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CONCERT PROGRAM Friday, November 20, 2015, 8:00pm David Robertson, conductor WHITAKER FOUNDATION MUSIC YOU KNOW SHOSTAKOVICH Festive Overture, op. 96 (1954) (1906-1975) DVOŘÁK Scherzo capriccioso, op. 66 (1883) (1841-1904) SAMUEL ADAMS Radial Play (2014) (1985) SUPPÉ Light Cavalry Overture (1866) (1819-1895) INTERMISSION ROSSINI The Barber of Seville Overture (1816) (1792-1868) RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Flight of the Bumblebee from Tale of the Tsar Saltan (1899-1900) (1844-1908) RACHMANINOFF Vocalise (1912, rev. 1915) (1873-1943) BRITTEN Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1913-1976) (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell), op. 34 (1945) Theme: Allegro maestoso e largamente Variation A (flutes and piccolo): Presto Variation B (oboes): Lento Variation C (clarinets): Moderato Variation D (bassoons): Allegro alla marcia Variation E (violins): Brillante—Alla polacca Variation F (violas): Meno mosso Variation G (cellos): [L’istesso tempo] Variation H (basses): Comminciando lento ma poco a poco accelerando al Allegro Variation I (harp): Maestoso Variation J (horns): L’istesso tempo Variation K (trumpets): Vivace Variation L (trombones): Allegro pomposo Variation M (percussion): Moderato Fugue: Allegro molto 23 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Tonight’s concert is part of the Wells Fargo Advisors Orchestral series. David Robertson is the Beofor Music Director and Conductor. Tonight’s concert is part of the Whitaker Foundation Music You Know series. Tonight’s concert is supported by University College at Washington University. Tonight’s concert is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Mr. Robert L. Williams. Large print program notes are available through the generosity of Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer. 24 A FEW THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT MUSIC YOU KNOW BY EDDIE SILVA • A celebration of the anniversary of the October Revolution was in need of more music. Dmitry Shostakovich put together the Festive Overture in a few days, and supposedly had a few good chuckles about its enormous popularity afterward. He borrowed from the Russian composer Glinka, and he borrowed from himself too, specifically from an opera that had been banned by Soviet authorities. He probably had a good chuckle about that too. • Orchestras used to be known for presenting concerts that featured dazzling showpieces—that is back before orchestras took themselves too seriously. Antonín Dvořák’s Scherzo capriccioso was such a piece, appearing as an audience favorite until the 1960s. If you see it on a concert program today you know you are in a place that likes to have fun. • You don’t know Samuel Adams’s Radial Play, but the musicians who played in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA in 2014 know it well. They toured across the nation performing the piece with David Robertson conducting. • You hear Franz von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture and hardly can imagine it’s something anyone sat down to write. It’s as familiar as a folk song, jaunty and full of wit. Suppé wrote it for an operetta that isn’t ever performed, but Mickey Mouse made good use of it in the 1942 cartoon, “Symphony Hour.” • Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville Overture was not written for Bugs Bunny, although it seems that way if you’ve heard “Let me cut your top/ Let me shave your mop...”. • You can invent any number of comic scenes to go with Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Flight of the Bumblebee, many people have. In the opera from which it has been taken, the music accompanies a scene in which a magic swan transforms the Tsar’s son into an insect so he may fly away and visit his father. • Serge Rachmaninoff originally wrote the song Vocalise for a high voice with piano accompaniment. It was such a hit he found other ways to present the piece, as in the arrangement for orchestra you hear tonight. • The second-best way to experience Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is by watching Wes Anderson’s movie Moonrise Kingdom, which makes great use of the work. 25 DAVID ROBERTSON BEOFOR MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR A consummate musician, masterful program- mer, and dynamic presence, American maestro David Robertson has established himself as one of today’s most sought-after conductors. A pas- sionate and compelling communicator with an extensive orchestral and operatic repertoire, he has forged close relationships with major orches- tras around the world through his exhilarating music-making and stimulating ideas. In fall 2015, Robertson launched his 11th season as Music Director of the 136-year-old St. Louis Symphony. In January 2014, Robertson assumed the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia. Highlights of the 2015-16 season with the St. Louis Symphony include a California tour in January and February, featuring Mahler’s Sym- David Robertson phony No. 5 and Messiaen’s Des canyons aux conducts the Symphony’s étoiles... (From the Canyons to the Stars...), with Thanksgiving weekend accompanying video imagery by photographer program, featuring Peter and the Wolf, November 27-29. Deborah O’Grady. Also on the California tour will be soloist Timothy McAllister performing John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto. The con- certo was part of the latest Symphony recording, City Noir, on Nonesuch, which received the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Other highlights for Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony are the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun’s Contrabass Concerto: The Wolf, featuring Princi- pal Double Bass Erik Harris, and John Adams’s most recent symphony for violin, Scheherazade.2, performed by Leila Josefowicz. In 2014-15 Robertson led the Symphony back to Carnegie Hall, performing Meredith Monk’s WEAVE for Carnegie’s celebration of the artist, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times wrote: “Mr. Robertson led a ferociously focused perfor- mance of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, the phrasing taut but natural as breathing.” Born in Santa Monica, California, David Robertson was educated at London’s Royal Acad- emy of Music, where he studied horn and com- position before turning to orchestral conducting. Robertson is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. 26 CONCERT CALENDAR Call 314-534-1700 or visit stlsymphony.org for tickets MESSIAH: December 3-6 Bernard Labadie, conductor; Lydia Teuscher, soprano; Allyson McHardy, mezzo-soprano; Jeremy Ovenden, tenor; Philippe Sly, bass-baritone; St. Louis Symphony Chorus; Amy Kaiser, director HANDEL Messiah Bernard Labadie MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS: December 11-13 David Robertson, conductor John Williams adds emotional power to every movie he scores. David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony perform some of the favorites, including Home Alone, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. David Robertson A GOSPEL CHRISTMAS WITH THOMAS YOUNG: December 17 Kevin McBeth, conductor; Thomas Young, tenor; St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus Grammy Award-winner Thomas Young adds his compelling voice for this night of soul-stirring Gospel music. Thomas Young Supported by Monsanto Fund MACY’S HOLIDAY CELEBRATION: December 18-20 Steven Jarvi, conductor; Whitney Claire Kaufman, vocalist; Holiday Festival Chorus; Kevin McBeth, director Make your spirits bright at Powell Hall as it’s transformed into a shimmering holiday house. Join in on the holiday sing-along and visit with Santa Claus. Presented by Macy’s Whitney Claire Kaufman Sponsored by PNC 27 CONCERT PROGRAM Saturday, November 21, 2015, 8:00pm Sunday, November 22, 2015, 3:00pm David Robertson, conductor Jack Liebeck, violin BRETT DEAN The Lost Art of Letter Writing, for Violin and Orchestra (2006) (b. 1961) Hamburg, 1854 The Hague, 1882 Vienna, 1886 Jerilderie, 1879 Jack Liebeck, violin INTERMISSION BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68 (1862-76) (1833-1897) Un poco sostenuto; Allegro Andante sostenuto Un poco allegretto e grazioso Adagio; Più andante; Allegro non troppo, ma con brio These concerts are part of the Wells Fargo Advisors Orchestral series. David Robertson is the Beofor Music Director and Conductor. Jack Liebeck is the Sid and Jean Grossman Guest Artist. The concert of Saturday, November 21, is underwritten in part by a generous gift from Lawrence and Cheryl Katzenstein. Pre-Concert Conversations are sponsored by Washington University Physicians. Large print program notes are available through the generosity of Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum and are located at the Customer Service table in the foyer. 28 ALL IS LOST BY EDDIE SILVA Dear Reader, Not too long ago I would have written this by hand (I shifted from the pen and yellow legal pad to keyboard rather late in my writing life). Not TIMELINKS long ago I would have written on a typewriter, an old beaten up Royal first used by my older 1862-76 sister; later there were Selectrics that were sturdy BRAHMS and heavy as granite, and then a sleek electronic Symphony No. 1 in C Olivetti that broke down all the time. minor, op. 68 I’m writing to you on my laptop. In the pro- Marx’s Das Kapital cess of writing I have changed the words, rear- published ranged sentences, and maneuvered whole para- 2006 graphs with a few uncomplicated motions of my BRETT DEAN wrist. I can send my document (an old word that The Lost Art of Letter lingers) so it may be seen by any random person Writing, for Violin and in milliseconds. I can publish it on any number of Orchestra media platforms. You can read these notes online Steve Jobs directs production of the iPhone and not touch a page of print. It’s all magic. How do we feel about this? We’ve barely had time to sort it out. None of us asked for it. You may have fully embraced these new means of immedi- ate communication.